Who was in charge?

After
several days, rescue turned to recovery.

The
government’s responsibility for recovering from a disaster is spelled out under
the Federal Response Plan (FRP). Under this, the Federal Emergency Management
Agency is designated as the lead agency for “consequence management,” meaning
measures taken to protect public health and safety. This protocol focuses on
physical recovery and rescue, providing environmental health services in a time
of disaster—i.e. in assessing risks, providing protection in the event of
chemical threats, etc.

Under the plan, the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) began removing asbestos-contaminated dust
from streets and buildings around the New York site, as well as cleaning debris
from more than 300 cars, about a week after the incident. FEMA reported that
EPA was continuing its air monitoring and establishing more air monitoring
stations around the impact site and in New Jersey. At the Pentagon, it
reported, water sampling and air quality monitoring stations revealed no
elevated levels of asbestos or contamination.

Experts
say that the response system designed for response to natural disasters worked very effectively for
the response to the consequences of a terrorist
attack, in the sense that federal agencies like HHS and the Army Corps of
Engineers integrated well with local responders. “Disaster Medical Assist and
Disaster Mortuary Teams were mobilized and deployed by the HHS Office of
Emergency Preparedness and debris removal teams deployed by the US Army Corps
of Engineers as local fire and rescue responded to the WTC and Pentagon,” notes
The Institute for Crisis, Disaster and Risk Management at George Washington
University.

Photo: Andrea Booher/FEMA News Photo

However, because New York State is a “home-rule”
state, the responsibility for managing the rescue and recovery was entrusted to
the state. Because Mayor Giuliani exerted such leadership, the state was criticized
for taking too much of a backseat during the crisis.
"Gov. Pataki was criticized because he was not the leader supposedly (on
Sept. 11). That's true. The mayor was the leader. New York State is a home rule
state. All emergencies begin and end at the local level. We were there to
support New York City during that time," New York state director of
emergency response Ed Jacoby told reporter John Nagy of the Pew Center on the
States (Stateline.org).

The city Fire
Department was the so-called “incident command” from the beginning, and the
city’s Department of Design and Construction was later appointed “co-incident
commander” with fire officials.

“ It is tough duty and it takes unique individuals.”

However,
some experts brought in to help assess the environmental damage say a
significant problem early on was that the federal response plan did not
anticipate—in fact, could not have anticipated—the kind of environmental
impacts that struck the city on September 11 and was therefore not prepared to
address it.

Even
Joe Allbaugh, the Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA in
an interview with Don Imus, was aghast at the hazards. He described them this
way: “The rescue workers, fire, police the USR Teams they go into those
pockets, and they run into carbon monoxide, which is deadly.And that forces them to back out after about
20-25 minutes.And take as much as an
hour an hour and fifteen breaks to recoup.And it’s very strenuous.Not
only on the physical side, but the mental side crawling around inside the
rubble. It is tough duty and it takes unique individuals.That’s why I think Americans ought to go to
the Fire Departments and Police Departments and say “Thank you”.And every one of these team that are coming
in from outside of New York.When they
return they ought to be welcomed home …”